“I didn't want to get to that point where people look at each other in the stands if you overhit a pass or miss a shot and think: 'Pirlo's old, he's finished, he can't do it anymore'," Pirlo told Vanity Fair.

“I couldn't have endured that.

“If I hadn't been a footballer? I didn't have a Plan B. I started playing with my brother, with a sponge ball. I always thought that playing football was my destiny.

“As for the future, I have a lot of time to think about it, we'll see, but there's no hurry. For now, I'm enjoying time with my children. I like traveling, I'm not at all a creature of habit.